Practical Demonkeeping

CE Exorcises Its Clutter Complex with an Expansive Online Cosmos

My personal business Beelzebub is disorganization. Most months, I write this column from my office swamp — a papery marsh of magazines and press releases where I must avoid Jenga-like columns of CDs and interview cassettes. Sometimes, detailing the science of machinery actually involves 20 minutes of me crawling on the floor, nosing through jewel cases and machine manuals before a story can continue.

Out on the jobsite and in the office, our readership faces similar worksite demons of disorganization. To kill these clutter bugs once and for all, you will need to thoroughly clean house. At Compact Equipment’s busy nerve center, we’re taking the opportunity to organize, transferring our knowledge of machines in print into an easily accessible cyber library. Drop by www.compactequip.com and CE Unbound (www.compactequip.com/unbound) to find the growing catalog of compact equipment on the Internet, expanding our ultimate online resource for machines and man, accessible anywhere with a contractor and a connection.

This month the CUL Encyclopedia begins online. It’s the epic story of the most versatile machine in the compact equipment chronicles — the compact utility loader. The CUL Encyclopedia will be the first compendium of compact tool carriers available on the ‘Net; we hope to do others on attachment carriers like skid steers and mini excavators very soon. Previewed on page 24, the CUL Encyclopedia is aimed at capturing, tagging and studying every attachment category on the market for compact utility loaders (also called mini track loaders and compact skid steers).

This month, we break down 10 implements of interest for CULs (from augers to trenchers), and every month after, we will restock this library with more than enough entries to satisfy our readers. After thumbing through the CUL Encyclopedia, Web slingers can cruise over and cast anchor at CE’s Attachment Buyer’s Guide (www.compactequipbuyers.ims.ca) to find every OEM and brand for each attachment category on the compact utility loader market, using an easy-to-navigate search engine. These are the treasure troves you will find in the vast CE cyber halls.

Machine heads can now link their minds directly to our brain mass of knowledge, focused on equipment such as skid steers, telehandlers, compact wheel loaders, trenchers, backhoes, track loaders, attachments and everything in between. On top of advancing the philosophies of machinery (operational tips, selection advice, pricing pointers and maintenance insights), our research group is adept at brewing some of the best market analysis in the industry (our bathtub gin’s not half bad either). This month, the Mayors Water Council details the government’s vast network of expenditures on sewer and water resources from 1991 to 2005. This is market research that takes years to accumulate.

The only place to fully access this information will be via our cybrarian services at www.compactequip.com and at our online-only bibliotheca called CE Unbound. Now there is no need to anthologize your favorite articles of equipment anymore. Keep your mobile office lean and jobsite clutter free by utilizing CE’s online infobahn. Roll on.

Keith Gribbins
Managing Editor
kgribbins@benjaminmedia.com

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